Hatfield Select Board defers ARPA spending decisions, schedules January session

HATFIELD -- November 16, 2021, Hatfield Select Board opens $971,746 ARPA review with no spending commitments, sets January follow-up. At a joint session with the Finance Committee and Capital Planning Committee, Chair Luke Longstreeth and members Edmund Jaworski and Julia Frisby reviewed roughly $1.55 million in departmental requests against the town's American Rescue Plan Act allocation, a gap of nearly $580,000. Treasurer-Collector Lorie De La Leo, retained for ARPA accounting at roughly $3,100 annually under a contract the board approved the same night, warned that federal eligibility guidance issued just days before the meeting had already superseded the document the town had been using. The board voted unanimously to approve four tax classification recommendations from the Board of Assessors, a single tax rate, no open space discount, no residential exemption, and no small commercial exemption, all unchanged from FY 2021. A $100,000 essential-employee premium-pay proposal from Fire Chief Bob Flaherty drew the most skepticism, with multiple members calling the eligibility criteria "a slippery slope" requiring significant further definition before any vote.